Keys to the Heart
by SpoonyAzul
Summary: Years of Combat Training, Five-star rating with anything that shoots bullets and cuts with an edge. So, giving a Christmas gift to someone you love should be easy, right?


With the training he received over the years, Agent York thought that maybe the Director would've added a session or a manual on how to give a Christmas present for a lover.

By lover, he meant Agent Carolina, one of the best agents at Project Freelancer and the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen or met.

That was the reason why he was outside her room, wearing his tan fatigues, and with a small box wrapped in sparkly blue paper in his hands, trying to find the right words to say to her. A few times, he raised his hand as to knock on the door, but then hesitantly put his hand back down.

_Damn it, it shouldn't be this hard. Knock on the door, say "Merry Christmas," give her the present, _York mentally told himself, _it's that simple._

When it came to knock on the door, he thought she might not be in her room, probably in a training session or she was already asleep and he didn't want to wake her.

Every time he raised his hand, he kept coming up with excuses not to give his gift to her. And why shouldn't he? He broke into five different stores to find her a gift for Christmas. At the last store, he fought over it with the owner, a crazy redneck lady with wild hair.

Now he was standing at Carolina's door, still stumbling on his words. He could figure out any lock imaginable, but he couldn't say two simple words to his lover. He was a Freelancer, for God's sake! Giving a simple gift to a woman shouldn't be difficult at all!

_Okay, she's a woman who could run faster than Jesus and beat the ever-loving shit out of you if you stood in her way, but still…._

"York, what are you doing in the hallway?"

York looked up from his blue present to see Carolina standing in the doorway, arms crossed with a confused look on her face. He had realized that he had been pacing up and down the hallway and saying his thoughts out loud, like a crazy person in a psychiatric ward. The locksmith could feel his face burning, turning red.

"Um, how long have to you been standing there?" He managed to ask after a moment of awkward silence and slight embarrassment.

"For a few minutes when I heard you mumbling something about a 'crazy redneck lady'." Carolina answered with a laugh before turning her attention to what was in York's hand, "What's in the box?"

York looked down at the wrapped sparkly box he still had in his hands. He was a bad lair and everyone in the project knew it.

"It's, uh, a present." He said stupidly.

"I see that, York, but I asked what's inside it, not what it is." Carolina said with a chuckle, going back into her room, "You can come in for a minute. I won't kill you or anything."

So he entered her room and saw her in full view.

It was a little after curfew, so she had ditched her armor for her matching color fatigues. The camo slacks didn't do her justice, but her tank top accentuated her curves in the right places. Her long red hair was tied in her usual style, a ponytail with stands shaping around her face. He recently noticed that she had a confident sway in her hips when she walked, the kind that would make any man want to look. She was beautiful, but York always zoned in on her eyes. He would lose himself in those steel blue eyes.

He shook his head and brought himself back from his thoughts. After a few minutes of recollecting himself, he stood in front of her and extended his arm to give her the box. "Merry Christmas."

Carolina stared at the box, then back at York, then back at the box again. Confusion took over her face and she blurted out, "What?"

"In case you forgot, Carolina," York sarcastically remarked, "it's a custom to give someone a present on Christmas."

"I know that!" She yelled out, swiping the box from his hands, "it's just, I didn't expect you to give me something this year."

"Of course I would! I remember every year." York said, and then quickly added when Carolina raised an eyebrow, "Well, I try to."

Carolina turned around and lifted the top of the small box. Her mouth opened a bit in surprise when she looked inside and took out its contents. She pulled out a silver chain necklace with a small charm dangling from it. The charm itself had no gems and jewels, but its shape reminded her of the holographic lock that York could get through in his sleep.

"What is this?" She said, quizzically looking at York.

"It's, well, it was a part of set. It had a pair of keys with it. You know, 'Keys to your heart' kinda thing." He explained, "Thing is, I had to fight the redneck lady I mentioned and I lost the 'keys.'"

Carolina raised an eyebrow while she tried to put the silver chain around her neck, "You can kill your way through a hundred soldiers, but you can't fight off a woman?"

"A crazy redneck lady who was completely drunk and had a serious kick," He corrected her, "and all I had was my lock-picking gear. Not to mention, my sight in this eye isn't what it used to be."

He pointed to his left eye, which was scarred and colored white instead of his natural brown. It served as a reminder of what happened in the training session with the new recruit, when a grenade detonated and almost killed him.

He saw Carolina with a pained expression on her face, something she did at the mere mention of his injury. He knew that it was because of Wyoming and Maine that he was almost killed. He also knew that, if they weren't already in the medical wing from the last mission, she would beat the shit out of them.

He shook the thoughts out of his head. _Concentrate on now, York._

"York, I know you put a lot of thought into this, but..." Carolina said, looking at the charm now around her neck, "that 'keys to your heart' line was so cheesy."

"Oh, you hurt me with your cruel, cruel words!" York jokingly said, his hands clutching his chest as if an arrow pierced his heart.

The female agent let out a chuckle at his melodramatic display.

York sheepishly tapped his foot. "You know I'm not good with words, Carolina. You gonna give me another chance?"

Carolina chuckled with a smile and simply said, "I might."

"Okay, let me see…."

It took five minutes, but York managed to come up with something.

Well, even if I don't have the keys for that lock, I'm a damn good locksmith."

The female agent almost let out a laugh. "That's better than your last line."

"So...you like it?" He asked, "The necklace, I mean, not the line I just said."

She let out a chuckle while looking at the charm. "Maybe you should close your eyes and find out."

"You're...not gonna slap me again, are you?" he asked.

"Would you just trust me?" Carolina scowled, crossing her arms.

"Alright, alright." York finally shut his eyes, his sight going black. For a moment, he heard shuffling followed by light footsteps coming closer and was just a bit nervous as to what she was doing.

Then he felt something warm against him and he wondered what it was. Then he felt the same warmth inside his mouth.

_Wait…_

York snapped his eyes open and saw that Carolina was kissing him. Then he realized that she was still wearing the silver necklace.

And nothing else.

_Oh boy…_

York would be lying if he said that he didn't have very dirty thoughts when he laid eyes on her beautiful body. Then his eyes trailed down at her necklace, at her chest...and a little more down south. When he kissed her back, it opened a massive floodgate and released a torrential downpour.

Then one thing led to another...

And another...

And yet another...

Next thing he knew, he was lying on her bed, wearing nothing under her sheets, with Carolina lying right next to him. Both were tired, but neither of them wanted to sleep. His fingers brushed against her arm while he left a trail of kisses on her neck and shoulders. He didn't mind that her hair was a slight mess. Actually, he found her more beautiful that way.

"Hey, Carolina." He nudged her after a few moments of silence.

"Yeah?"

He hesitantly asked, "Do you really think that my lines are cheesy?"

She didn't answer for a few moments, as if she was thinking. Finally, she replied, "Yeah, I do."

York suddenly pulled back and sat up on the bed. Carolina had a habit of being blunt, but…

"Ow, that actually hurts."

"Hold on. That's not what I meant." She said before she propped herself up and sat on his lap.

Looking at her now, her red hair was now out that ponytail, cascading down her back with a few strands shaped around the side of her head. She still wore nothing but that necklace dangling from her neck and his eyes traveled down her chest.

Suddenly, the dirty thoughts that York had earlier slowly started creeping back into his mind.

"What I meant was," Carolina continued, interrupting York's train of thought, "even though everything you say to me sounds like something from a cheesy romance novel…"

"Okay, scratch that, now I'm wounded." York interrupted, his voice filled with sarcasm, "Look at me, I'm practically bleeding everywhere."

Carolina put a finger on his lips, to keep him quiet, "I know that you mean it. I know you're not bullshitting every time words come out of your mouth."

York wasn't too sure what to say, except…

"That...that's good to know."

"I'm glad you think so," Carolina said before she kissed him, "Now shut up and make love to me."

"You're not being subtle tonight, are you?" he said between kisses.

"Hey, I have needs too."


End file.
